BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1647
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2003
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Jackie Goldberg, Chair
AB 1647 (Wiggins) - As Introduced: February 21, 2003
SUBJECT : Prefabricated materials in school facility
construction
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of General Services (DGS) to
study the use, and its approval, of prefabricated materials in
the construction of public schools and report its findings,
including but not limited to, an inventory of all types of
prefabricated materials submitted to DGS for approval, to the
Legislature by January 1, 2005.
EXISTING LAW
1)Establishes various school construction health and safety
requirements, including, but not limited to, certain
requirements that DGS approve construction plans for
compliance with prescribed seismic safety and fitness-for-use
requirements; and,
2)Authorizes DGS to adopt regulations for safety and design of
factory-built buildings for use as school buildings, and to
approve or reject plans and specifications submitted by
manufacturers of factory-built buildings.
3)Requires that prevailing wage be paid to employees of public
works projects and allows the director of the Department of
Industrial Relations (DIR) to determine what constitutes a
public works project.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS :
Precenditial Decision #2002-64 . On April 10, 2003, the director
of DIR determined that prevailing wages must be paid to the
employees of contractors or subcontractors engaged in the
off-site fabrication or prefabrication of items specifically
produced for public works projects.
Existing state law requires that prevailing wage be paid to
AB 1647
Page 2
employees of public works projects and provides the director of
DIR with the ability to determine what constitutes a public
works project. Therefore, by determining that the construction
of certain off-site fabricated or prefabricated materials as
public works projects, employees involved in the fabrication or
prefabrication of these materials must be paid prevailing wages.
Arguments in support . According to the author, "On April 11,
2003, the director of DIR issued Precedential Decision #2002-064
which required that prevailing wages be paid to the employees of
contractors and subcontractors engaged in the off-site
fabrication or prefabrication of items produced for public works
projects. The director made the determination based on a
situation at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo where the a
contractor responsible for the heating, ventilation, and
air-conditioning systems on a project did not pay the employees
prevailing wage even though the workers fabricated the items
specifically for the public works project.
"Consequently, with the passage of the school bond, many public
works projects similar to the project at Cuesta College will
soon go out to bid with the likelihood that the plans submitted
and approved by DGS, contain off-site fabricated or
prefabricated items designed especially for the project.
Without knowledge of materials approved by DGS, some school
construction projects may be in violation of prevailing wage
requirements. Therefore, this measure would require DGS to
create a list of all approved fabricated and prefabricated
materials used in school construction sites so that all
participatory and regulatory parties better understand the scope
and impact of the recent determination."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Mavonne Garrity / ED. / (916) 319-2087